. The premiere of the original play “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!”
. A screening of the Brown Canada DVD
. The “Our Stories, Our Histories” South Asian history exhibit
. An interactive discussion about Racialized & Indigenous histories
. A free resource booklet on South Asian histories in Canada

The Brown Canada Theatre Project will be presenting “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” a series of vignettes written and directed by Alia Somani.

“Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” is about one of the least known yet most significant episodes in the history of Canada. What is called the Komagata Maru incident took place in 1914, when a group of 376 Punjabi migrants aboard a Japanese ship - the Komagata Maru - was turned away from Canada’s western seaboard and refused entry into the country.

The Komagata Maru incident may have occurred almost 100 years ago, but it has not been forgotten. Instead it continues to haunt us, to reverberate in our nation’s consciousness.In fact, in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood up in Bear Creek Park and declared that on behalf of Canada, he was sorry for the events of 1914. “Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru!” explores, among other things, this apology; it considers how much of our past is remembered and how much still remains buried; and most importantly, it asks us to relive the experiences of those who traveled to Canada in 1914 in search of a better life, and a better future.

Brown Canada is a community-led history project that seeks to document, create and share South Asian histories in Canada initiated byCouncil of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), a social justice umbrella organization working with Ontario’s diverse South Asian communities. We acknowledge the financial support of the Community Historical Recognition Program of Citizenship and Immigration Canada in the initial phase of this project.